York bristles at fans doing the wave while Campbell was injured

Posted by Mike Florio on October 14, 2013, 8:14 AM EDT

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In recent years, fans attending Candlestick Park have developed a bad reputation, in large part for disrespecting fans of the opposing team. On Sunday, some disrespected a player from the visiting team — and the owner wasn’t happy about it.

After Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell was injured and before he gave fans the thumb’s up sign indicating he had movement in his extremities, the wave emerged.

Yes, the wave. That relic of the ’70s, where bored fans entertain themselves by quickly standing up and sitting down in cascading fashion. Until enough of them get bored with that.

Asked later by a follower on Twitter if there’s any truth to the rumor that the team’s new home, which opens next year, will have the ability to catapult fans who do the wave, York offered a one-word reply: “Yes.”

It’s always risky to challenge the paying customers, but it’s good that York was willing to do it.

Too many fans think buying a ticket gives them the right to say or do whatever they want. They also think being in a big crowd gives them the cover to do it.

47 responses to “York bristles at fans doing the wave while Campbell was injured”

Combine that with the fans cheering when Schaub got hurt and that adds more ammunition to the idea that NFL fans have evolved into the “Jackass” generation: hurting people is funny, not serious, and something to be cheered.

Its no secret that the FortyWHiner fanbase has zero class and 90% must get approval from their P.O. before attending a game. Its sickening that kids and ladies can not go to a game because of these animals

I couldn’t go to Stick yesterday as I was travelling but as a long time season ticket holder this isn’t surprising.

People do the waves when they get bored. And it has nothing to do with whats going on the field. In 2011 when our offense was on the filed and marching down, they were doing the wave and started to distract the offense. I tried to stop so hard at that time but my section was booed when we didn’t get up. Fortunately last year we didn’t have any waves.

Yes, they are being complete idiots and morons but their intention was not to be disrespectful to the injured player. They are sometimes oblivious to what happens on the field. If you don’t believe me please Google Candle Stick wave and see that it occurs more than it should.

I was at the game & refused to do the wave. Total disrespectful to the Cardinals & especially Calais Cambell. In our section, us “Season Ticket Holders” was booing so hard while others was performing the wave. Again, very disappointing

Venues have fan etiquette/rules, which are clearly displayed, sometimes printed right on the tickets, so not sure where people on this blog or otherwise think they have ultimate freedom to do/say whatever they want at games.

“Asked later by a follower on Twitter if there’s any truth to the rumor that the team’s new home, which opens next year, will have the ability to catapult fans who do the wave, York offered a one-word reply: “Yes.””

Whoa Whoa Whoa, this is like saying Video Games make kids shoot people.

The Wave itself didnt celebrate anything or injure anyone. You cant throw people out for doing the WAVE.

Philly fans were beaning Santa with iceballs and cheering a temporarily paralyzed Michael Irvin long before yesterday’s “Wavegate.”

So while I will stay out of the whole “is it free speech, classy or not, etc. etc.” argument, I will say that this sort of behavior has been around for many years and thus no, it is not a sign of the Apocalypse being upon us.

Debatable. How can anybody stomach cheering for a team with such a terrible reputation for cheating? Did you know that the 49ers were fined $60,000 by the California Fair Political Practices Commission for laundering election campaign contributions in the 90’s? We’re all fortunate that the one-man crime wave known as Eddie DeBartolo, Jr. was summarily kicked out of the NFL.

“Philly fans were beaning Santa with iceballs and cheering a temporarily paralyzed Michael Irvin long before yesterday’s “Wavegate.””

And they were called out on it. And they continue to be called out on it decades later, obviously. Expect the same for the 49ers. On the bright side, the Cowboys have still won a Super Bowl more recently than the 49ers have.

I still can’t believe how people lose class, dignity, and respect just because it is legal to do so. IDIOTS!!!!! P.S. – The ones using that as an excuse to justify these classless actions are just as idiotic.

When a player is not being carted off injured – I like the wave.
Not really, never participate – but what I DO like about it is it pisses off so many people that just need to shut up!
Yea, cool – you hate the wave. You’re the better fan, whaaa whaa.

There are bad fans at every stadium in the NFL ( yes including KC and GB and their self righteous asses) luckily next year a lot of the poorly behaved SF fans will be priced out of attending games with the new stadium.

However – I wouldn’t read too much into the wave at the Stick. There were a lot of AZ fans doing it too… Not saying it was ok, just saying look at what was happening before jumping on the “SF is classless” bandwagon:
– There was no connection to the goings-on down on the field.
– It was a long delay in the last part of the game when people a feeling all the $10 beers they’ve been drinking.
– There was no info given over the loud speakers as;
– a powered cart came on, went off, came back, went off again, a push cart/stretcher was brought out.
It was then that the non-thinking fans (SF and AZ) started the wave. They were just passing time. Never the less, it was still the wrong thing to do.

Nobody anywhere wants to see a player injured. The unthinking fans who participated in the wave were in the wrong – and many, many of us around the stadium were letting them know that, as it was happening.

NOTE: Everyone was cheering when Campbell was taken off the field. As a football fan (and Niner Faithful) I hope for his speedy recovery.

“BTW, I thought it was pathetic that the 49er players were so embarrassed about the wave they were trying to quite the crowd down. Just awful.”

I disagree!
There is nothing wrong with communication, or even over-communication!

Everything about Candlestick stadium is so old and poorly designed as it was pieced together in the 60’s, that even the loudspeakers do not do an effective job of conveying information to the 68K + fans that were there.
Not only is it helpful, it’s needed for players, the officiating crew and sideline security to step up and communicate what is needed. I cannot wait for the new stadium!

To all those who think that the 9ers winning has made the fans obnoxious, please consider that the older fans don’t act like that. We may have a superiority complex, but we’re not outwardly obnoxious about it. The problem is with the fair weather “I’ve always been a fan even though this is my first jersey” fans. I think some raiders fans may have jumped ship. Most fans that have seen at least 2 of the 5 superbowl wins has more respect than that. I hope any new fans reading this will take to heart that in San Francisco, gold is more than a color, it’s a standard and behave appropriately. You can boo or cheer for the oppositions players getting hurt all you want, just remember that if your kid or friend or family member gets hurt in a game, you won’t think it’s cool if somebody cheers when they get hurt. That’s low class.